Tech investor Peter Thiel says US should not have launched war on Iran: Report

“I’m skeptical of (the war), I think we should not have done it,” Thiel said at a private event on Oct. 12, according to audio obtained by Politico. “There were a lot of mistakes that were made.”

Thiel, a major Republican donor and longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, also questioned whether the US had the means to sustain its position in the conflict.

“Maybe we don’t have the hard power. Maybe we’re going to lose the soft power war,” he said.

In the lecture earlier this month, part of a series held in Nashville, Thiel also reportedly expressed opposition to neoconservative foreign policy and US military intervention in the Middle East.

His comments reportedly suggested concern that the war could have consequences beyond the battlefield, particularly for Washington’s international standing.

Despite questioning the decision to go to war, Thiel reiterated his support for Trump and appeared keen to shield the president from potential political and legal repercussions.

He warned that the International Criminal Court – recently targeted by assertive US sanctions – could pose a threat to the administration as it pursues the conflict, describing the possibility of an arrest warrant as a “sword of Damocles hanging over the Trump administration.”